i love americai love the rest of the world too.i fight for those who do not benefit from warand statistics suggest that's you.i fight for freedom-real freedom and equality for all,i fight for the small.i am grateful for all the little gifts in life.i fight with my mindi fight for our rights.i love americaenough to question it's leadership,enough to point out the hypocrisyand that we are not a true democracy.i fight for the ability to think for myself,for the right to be respectedeven without wealth.for the modern day slavefor the right to be gayfor the immigrants of yesterday and today.i fight for the hope that somedaythe wealthiest 1% of the worldwill not profit off the misery of the other 99%.i fight for the right to vent.i fight for innocent people who are locked away,i fight for the understandingthat most matters are grey.i fight for the school systemto teach opposing points of view.i fight for the youth.i fight for the abilityto recognize that i am not always rightbut that knowledge is powerand we can learn from eachotherin the hope that we will somedayuncover the truth.i fight so that our souls can be set freeand someday we will all know peace.

thanks. i'm glad you liked it. i will take your advice into consideration if i decide to make a spoken word video from the poem, which i probably will. it is easier for me to write free verse. it flows from my pen better, but when speaking it aloud, structure is helpful and i suspect it is for the reader as well. there are definitely some points in the poem where i feel like the flow is lost, but i was getting frustrated with it. so thank you for the input and for reading it. peace, jymi

when I write poetry it almost always initially comes out as free verse.

then, through a long and frustrating editing process, I eventually turn it into some sort of form. Not always traditional form, but at least a form I define for the piece, and then make sure i follow it. eg. each stanza must have 5 lines. the last line is only 3 syllables(not a good example though.)

whenever i find points where the flow is lost, i look at the physical structure of the piece. Often i find the lost flow is fixed up by a line break, stanza break, meter change, rhythm/rhyme/pun play of whatever.

I like anal-eyesing and editing good poetry in progress.I miss doing it more.